Driving Opel Corsa in Italy

October 2, 2023

After speaking to an agent at Hertz Car Rental (which I had previously booked using Hertz), we finally settled on the front-wheel drive Opel Corsa (made in  Zaragosa, Spain) with the license plate GL235AS. 

Since I had never driven in Italy, I opted out to purchase additional auto insurance coverage as a precaution. The other basic insurance added 100.00 euros to my bill (the final total was 500.91 euros for 5 days). 

In 5 days, I had the chance to drive the Opel Corsa on various roads in Southern Italy, with mostly freeway use (and some city driving).

Engine

The 1.2-liter engine started quickly (and turned off when idle). However, it had low torque and was slow to rev up. Driving uphill was often a struggle, and I had to downshift frequently in the mountains to keep the car moving.

Gearbox

The 5-speed manual gearbox shifted smoothly, and the clutch pedal was light and precise. I wish it had a 6th speed (for better gas mileage)

Handling

The car handled well, and the steering felt light but precise. Making sharp turns was relatively easy.

Instrumentation

The Opel Corsa has unusual dash instrumentation (for a U.S. car driver):

1. The gas tank shows 0 (empty)  to 1 (full) instead of a round gas gauge (used by nearly all cars)
• It did show km to empty (which was a nice touch)
2. The tachometer is small and hard to read (linear gauge)
• The small tachometer was hard to see and was primarily useless in its bottom left location
3. Indications of when to upshift or downshift
• The suggestions to upshift or downshift were helpful
4. The gas tank is not protected by key
• I was surprised that the gas filler cap was not locked or protected in any way (to protect from theft of fuel)
5. Trunk is small
• The trunk barely fit our small carry-on suitcases
6. Apple CarPlay
• Apple CarPlay worked well for the most part, but the speaker volume was hard to adjust (The touchscreen did not work well)
7. Headlights
• The low-beam headlights are not especially powerful, and I had to use high beams during the drive from Lecce to Otranto (as low beams were mostly useless)
  
8. No Rear View Camera
• I expected a new rental car to have a standard rear-view camera

Gas Mileage:

• 801 km driven = 497.72 miles
• Fill up 1 (Di Paola Angelo & Figlio):      $56.64 =  52.62 euros at 2.20/liter -> 23.92 liters
• Fill up 2 (easy Service SRL in Brindisi): $47.42 = 44.85 euros at 1.95/liter -> 23 liters
• Gallons used  = 23.92 + 23 = 46.92 liters = 12.39 gallons
• MPG = 497.72 miles / 12.39 gallons = 40.17 mpg 

Overall

A well-handling car hampered by its underpowered 1.2-liter engine.